There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife. There they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife, and there I buried Leah —
Jacob is dying in Egypt, and his last words name a graveyard in Canaan. Why does a man living in Egypt's wealth care so much about one cave — and why ask to lie beside Leah, not Rachel, the wife he loved?
A plot bought, not inherited
Three times the verse says "there," pointing at one small plot. It was the only piece of the promised land these people owned.
J. N. DarbyIn the noble manners and simple ways of the patriarchs, we meet a great truth. Abraham had the heir and all the promises, yet he owned nothing here below. He had to buy a burial place to bury his dead out of his sight. That was all he held as a present possession in the earth.
Not beside Rachel
Jacob's love had always gone to Rachel. His dying wish went the other way, and the reason lay in what the bought ground stood for.
F. B. HoleIt is worth noting that his thoughts turned to the original spot that Abraham had bought near Mamre. Rachel had been so special to him. We might have expected him to want a grave at her side. But no! There was this spot, bought in the land. To faith it was a pledge that one day God would keep His promise and the whole land would be theirs.
"There I buried Leah"
Scripture never tells us when Leah died. The only record of her burial is Jacob's own word, spoken by a husband who disliked her.
Leslie M. GrantIt was Leah who bore children, while Rachel remained fruitless for a long time... Despite his dislike for Leah, Jacob never suggested doing what people do today: putting his wife away. In fact he kept her longer than Rachel, who died in childbirth and was buried on the way to Ephrath (Gen. 35:19), before Jacob came to his father at Mamre. We are not told of Leah's death, but Jacob says he buried her at Mamre.
Death as the way home
Jacob had already made Joseph swear about his burial. Now he binds all his sons to the same promise, and the repetition tells us where his heart was.
J. G. BellettWith Machpelah and his burial, Jacob ends these dying conversations with his sons, just as he had begun them. He already had Joseph's word and oath on this matter. Now he must put all of them under the same commitment. Death was more important to him than life. Life kept him in Egypt; death would restore him to Canaan. Death linked him with the God and the promise of his fathers. The hopes of faith lay beyond life, and outside Egypt.
A body sent ahead to claim the land
Listing the graves is not morbid bookkeeping. Every name in that cave is a claim staked on ground God had promised but not yet handed over.
Numerical Bible NotesDo we not need this striking repetition? Death leaves the promise of life wholly untouched. The living man sends his dead body in to take possession, in hope of his inheritance.
The family also took great care over the bodies themselves.
J. G. BellettThe patriarchs of the Jewish family all placed a special value on their dead bodies. They laid them up in Machpelah with reverent care. This care and zeal was their confession of a sure and certain hope of resurrection. But they connected resurrection with the land of Canaan. So Jacob and Joseph both died in Egypt. Both arranged for their bones to be carried over and laid in Canaan. This tells us that their hope of resurrection was the same as their hope of possessing the promised land at last.
Bought from the children of Heth
Jacob also reminds his sons who sold the field. One writer draws meaning from the seller's name. That is his reading, not a statement of the text.
Leslie M. GrantJacob keeps full possession of his senses to the end. He instructs his sons to bury him with his fathers, Abraham and Isaac, in the cave of Machpelah that Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite. Jacob was showing that he had the same faith as his fathers in the resurrection power of God... He reminds his sons that Abraham bought the cave and the field from the children of Heth, a name which means "fear." Those who are unsaved are the children of fear. Through fear of death they live in slavery all their lifetime (Heb. 2:15).
Summary
- Bought — the grave was the only piece of Canaan the family owned. Everything else was promise.
- Buried — six names in one cave, each burial a fresh claim on land God had pledged but not yet given.
- Beyond — their care over dead bodies confessed a hope of resurrection, and of resurrection in that land.
- Back — life kept Jacob in Egypt; death would bring him home to Canaan.
- Beside Leah — the unloved wife lies in the tomb of promise; the loved Rachel lies by the road. Faith chose the pledge over the preference.